Stay, Or Go?
by Dragon'sHost
Summary: Flare has to make a decision, as she watches her friends leave her village. Armada project: 28/365


**Why are the giants not named in the manga. It makes fic with Flare so much harder to write.**

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It with a smile on her face, and joy in her heart, that Flare watched Fairy Tail leave Sun Village. Sorrow tinged the parting as well, though Flare took pains to keep it hidden until their faces were long since out of sight. She would miss them. Blondie especially, it must be said. Yet she was grateful to them all, for in the warmth of their guild she had found echoes of that of Sun Village, long before they had ever come to save it. But Blondie, she owed the most to.

When her smile finally fell, it did not go unnoticed by the giants that had seen the mages off with her. Flare had never been adept at hiding her feelings from them, and now was no different.

"Are you sure you don't want to go with them, daughter?" rumbled one of the giants.

"Yeah," Flare replied. "I can't leave you guys. Especially not since I've just returned." There was still so much to do in the village. Cleanup after the prior night's party, first and foremost. Giants and members of Fairy Tail throwing a party together was something else entirely, in terms of mess and rowdiness. After that... something would need to be done to properly honor The Eternal Flame's parting gift to his people. So much to do. There was no way she could leave now.

"You've left once before," he gently reminded her. "We wouldn't mind if you needed to do so again. As we said before - we won't keep you here. It's your choice to stay or go. Please don't feel obligated to us, my child."

She lowered her gaze, shaking her head. "When I left before, I went to find other people my size. People with whom I belong. But in the end, where I most belong is here."

"Are you sure about that?"

Flare lifted her gaze to meet his. "What do you mean?"

"It seemed to us that you fit in very well with them. Especially with the blonde."

That brought a small smile to Flare's lips. "Blondie is special," she defended.

"Is she?" he asked, amused. "How is it that she came to be precious to our little Flare?"

Flare thought about it for a long while. Why was Blondie so important to her? The length of their interactions was... minimal, in comparison to how long she'd spent with Raven Tail, let alone at Sun Village. But the way Blondie had stared at her in the coliseum, full of determination and an indomitable will... that had been something she hadn't seen in Raven Tail. Ivan was ambitious, it was true, but that rang a different note to Flare than in Lucy's strength. Then her concern after Ivan's punishment, directed at an enemy, someone who had only hurt her. Concern for someone with bruises forming under their skin, no matter how hard Flare had tried to wipe the evidence away with ice water.

It had cemented the notion already forming in Flare's head that maybe Ivan was wrong. Maybe Raven Tail was wrong. That Flare had been very, very wrong.

Kindness was not unique to the giant race, Blondie had shown her.

Ivan had stood on a sandy slope, constantly grasping upward, tearing down others in his way, and yet never making any progress at all. Whereas Blondie... Blondie was on firm, solid ground. Rooted in the earth like a mountain. Like a giant. In her burnt a steady flame, that not even Flare could extinguish. Like The Eternal Flame. Although in the end, that had proven...

"She..." Flare swallowed thickly, struggled to find the words to articulate the importance of what she had learned from the Fairy Tail mage. "She showed me... that humans are..."

She paused.

No, that wasn't right.

So she tried again. "Blondie showed me that... I'm worth something. I had... I had begun to doubt that, when I left here. I had wondered if maybe I wasn't an inconvenience to all of you. I didn't look the same, I wasn't the same. And then the people I came across... they didn't change that opinion. They made it stronger. Blondie broke that. She cared when not even I did anymore."

The smile that cracked across the giant's face could split a mountain. "Sounds to me like even more reason to be with her, rather than us."

Tears welled up in Flare's eyes, and she shook her head in vehement denial. "No. I... I... I do want to be with her, and with them! But I..." She bit her lip, but tried to smile at the giants regardless. "I think I want to stay here - with my family - for now. I might go back." Hesitating, she shook her head even harder. "No!" Flare stated, much more firm. "I _will_ go see them, again. Someday. But right now, I want to be with you just as much. So... may I... may I stay? For now?"

"Of course, daughter. Stay as long as you need to. Welcome home."


End file.
